


There is a Moment, for a While, Eventually.

by shaenie



Category: LOTR RPS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-04-25
Updated: 2003-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:06:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaenie/pseuds/shaenie





	There is a Moment, for a While, Eventually.

There is a moment on the water, with the sun spangling Orlando's skin with glittering (they're only water droplets, Billy tells himself) points of solid (life)(vitality)(youth) light, when Orlando throws a smile over his shoulder at Billy, and the smile hits him like a solid thing, like it has weight, somehow. Billy cannot tear his eyes away from Orlando, cannot fathom ever tearing his eyes away from Orlando.

He cannot do it, even as he falls backwards off his board, knocked asunder by the weight of that smile.

Later, he tells himself that anyone would have fallen, anyone with eyes.

~

There is a moment on the set, before the sun even reaches the horizon, during some sort of in-between time that hangs heavy in the crisp, darkbright air, when Orlando sees Billy standing at the edge of the night, just outside the slurred circle of radiance provided by a single spotlight. Billy is standing with his head tipped back, eyes closed, while the breath fogs out from between his lips.

It stays in his mind, even while he sleeps. Orlando wakes shivering, blankets shed, as though his mind is urging him to feel the coldcrispbite of not-yet-spring along with Billy.

~

For a while, Billy tells himself it was a trick of sunlight and motion, and he believes this. But in a pub he cannot remember the name of, he sees it again, when Orlando curls an arm around Liv's shoulders and pulls her close, resting his chin on her hair. Her eyes are red-rimmed from tears, and Orlando's eyes are gentle as he strokes her hair. She clings to him, fingers clenched against his chest.

There is no sun and there is no movement, but the glimmering whatever-it-was is still there.

Billy's hand spasms, clenches, and knocks over his beer.

~

For a while, Orlando thinks no one in New Zealand remembers his full name. 'Orli' is his New Zealand moniker, and it doesn't usually bother him. He is homesick right now, however, for his mother and for Maude. 'Orli' in accents both familiar and foreign feels strange. Orlando is lonely sometimes when 'Orli' would not be.

When Billy crouches before him with a beer in each hand and says his (full) name, he beams (their breath mingles in the cold air), and is oddly unsurprised when Billy's eyes widen and he drops both glasses to hold (cradle) Orlando's face, instead.

~

Eventually, Billy knows he has to stop kissing Orlando and risk the look in Orlando's eyes, but it seems less important than the taste of Orlando's smile in Billy's mouth.

He can't quite think how this happened, he has only a vague notion of having been blindsided by Orlando's smile, and the cold beer puddling around his knees reminds him of falling into the ocean.

Orlando's hands creep under his jacket, fingers like careful explorers charting out unknown regions, tentative, in case the natives prove to be unfriendly.

Billy thinks again that anyone would have fallen, with or without eyes.

~

Eventually, Orlando realizes Billy is pulling slightly back, and opens his eyes. Billy regards him for a moment, and then says his name, kiss-darkened lips shaping each syllable fully, and Billy's eyes are green like yellow sunlight reflected off the surface of the sea.

Orlando smiles at Billy, smiles at his own name from Billy's lips. His sleeping mind had clearly had the right idea about feeling the chill of not-spring along with Billy. The chill only makes Billy's warmth more welcome, and he thinks that feeling lonely is impossible with Billy murmuring Orlando's (whole) name against Orlando's smiling lips.<l/j-cut>  



End file.
